Tea and Roses

Unfortunately, I must start this post with some bad news. My lovely old sewing machine has been out of commission for some time and I had assumed that it was merely a broken needle which would be simple to replace once I got settled into my new workroom. Well, I replaced the needle yesterday morning and have discovered that there may be some underlying issues. When I go to thread the machine, I can't seem to get the bobbin thread to catch, and instead my main thread gets all caught up in the internal mechanisms and won't easily come free. This has me incredibly sad because while I'm familiar with it's everyday uses I'm no mechanic and don't have a clear idea of what might be the issue. The machine has been in my family for many years, it's a good deal older than I am!! I do know of a repairman who can probably sort it out, and Minnie has a few ideas what might be the trouble, but I am considerably slowed by its temporary loss. Needless to say, I've got a new project that I've been excited to start, and it's going quite a bit more slowly than I had anticipated thanks to having to hand stitch everything at this point. 

Maybe a month ago, I received some heavy rose printed fabric from my sister. She had intended to make something for herself, but it was a project that she never managed to begin and the material caught my interest. It's a rather heavy weave and I believe it's intended for upholstery rather than clothing, however it seems quite durable. The best thing about it however is the wide bands that make up the pattern, alternating between climbing roses and what looks like ribbon lacing. What I've started doing with it is simply allowing the bands of design shape the final piece, which will end up being a type of dress. What I have envisioned has a fitted bodice with a square neckline, incorporating a center panel of roses (v-shaped) sandwiched by two strips of the purple. It will break with a seam at the waist, and the skirt will flare down to long tunic length before it splits into 4 separate panels (two in front and two behind) that will reach nearly to the floor.  The design is sleeveless, and meant to be worn either over an under-dress or with a blouse and leggings. I'm calling the style a traveling dress because the panel skirt would hypothetically allow the wearer to ride any manner of beast of vehicle. Given the variety of prints available in upholstery grade fabrics, I have a lot of hope that this will be something that is simple for me to reproduce.
I officially started work yesterday morning, full of ambition and with a cup of steaming tea in hand. I can't tell you how many cups of tea later, and I feel like the process is moving at a crawl. Part of the problem is that I'm not stopping to create a pattern first, but rather letting the fabric shape the piece as I go. This means that I have been constantly stopping to take measurements and more recently to attempt to fit the bodice with the help of a mirror. Initially I created something that looked like a pillow case with a neck hole cut into it (and that was essentially what it was), but I soon realized that to make the skirt practical I would need to split it in the front and back as well as either side creating the 4-panel pattern. This meant that I would need to separate the bodice portion from the

skirt portion and work them both individually so that I could rotate the positions where the stripes of pattern fall before assembling a finished piece. I finally worked up the courage to cut the two apart and have since been sorting out exactly where to pleat the bodice to create the correct tapered silhouette. I'm taking around 20 inches out at the waist from the original 52" width of the fabric, however because I want to preserve the full width of all 4 purple stripes on the bodice I have to do quite a bit of difficult shaping. At the moment I have the front of the neckline cut and the edge turned so that I don't damage the material with all the fittings I'm required to do. I have the shoulder seams sewn and the arm holes are cut, although I have not yet trimmed the excess fabric from under the arms. I have the loose proportions for the pleats pinned at the waist, and the seams on either side of the front panel have been basted in so that I have a good idea of where they will fall and how the fabric will shape around the bust.
All in all, it has been a good start to my second day of work, but there is much yet that needs done before I begin to feel really accomplished. I can only hope that I maintain steam on the project and don't hit any more unexpected roadblocks. I'm about to prepare some food for Reginald and myself, and then I believe I will be back to work for the rest of the evening.
With any luck, there will be another long post with many completed pictures shortly.

Thanks,
 Djinni